First Sight
by GoNeRoGuE98
Summary: One-shot. Callie and Brandon's thoughts when they first meet at the dinner table.


**Callie's POV **

"It is a huge deal, are you kidding me? That's like a $5,000 scholarship isn't it?" Lena was saying as I walked back into the kitchen. I resisted the urge to snort at the normalcy of the table. They were talking about scholarships and … music concerts? How typical of the All-American family. Bitterness coated every thought as I went back to me seat, finally tuning back into the conversation.

"Who's this?" The boy seated to my left asked, his green eyes solely concentrated on my face. Momentarily I wondered what he was thinking. Probably about my bruised cheek and busted lip no doubt. I wondered if he was also another foster kid. God, how many did they have?

"Oh, this is Callie," Lena answered him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. Unlike me when people touched me without awareness he didn't flinch. Like it was the most normal thing in the world. How long had he been here to trust her like that? If the twins had been here for eight years had he been here just as long? If not longer?

"She's going to be staying with us for a little while," she said with a smile directed towards me which I didn't return. It was all a charade anyways. I'd seen her face when she'd saw me bruised coming out of the juvenile detention center. Complete and utter distrust, not that I could blame her especially if she'd heard that bullshit story my foster father had given. Nobody listened to the child; nobody cared about what I had to say. I was just the troubled teen that had destroyed a car.

"Oh. Okay. Staying with us," he said, before dropping a piece of lasagna onto my plate, "Well, um, nice to meet ya."

His eyes continued to train on me even as the spatula pulled away from my plate. There was something about him though that made me want to trust him. His light green eyes were warm and kind, evidently showing that he had had an easy upbringing in a loving home. He obviously hadn't lost both of his parents at the age of ten and jumped around from foster home to foster home with druggies and alcoholics and abusers. He was the kind of kid I used to be. The kid that I had grown to envy and hate purely because they had it easy while others of us suffered.

I vowed then to make sure I didn't trust him.

_..._

**Brandon's POV **

Lena answered Mariana's question about when my concert would be, but my eyes had caught sight of the stranger walking around my home like it was normal. I felt my jaw fall open in bafflement as she settled down to my right. Her straight brown hair fell around her bruised and battered face. Briefly a flash of something flashed through me, startling me to ask Lena who she was. Still my eyes remained trained on her.

Who in the world would beat up a girl obviously no older than I was? She had to be at least sixteen and she had a busted lip! A surge of protection that I had felt many times over Mariana poured through me.

Her brown eyes stared distrustfully towards me, albeit curiously as well.

"Oh, this is Callie," she answered, "She's going to be staying with us for a little while."

I blinked in understanding then, ah. A foster child. Of course. Still that didn't make the begrudging feeling in my chest ease as I took in her swollen cheek that was purple and blue. God, had she even been able to fight back?

Of course I didn't ask this, and instead put a piece of lasagna onto her plate, "Nice to meet ya."

She continued to watch me curiously before asking, "What about him?"

I wasn't the only one confused because Lena asked for her to expand the question, but her next words caused a momentary silence to fall upon the table, "How'd you get him? The ninety-nine cents store? I mean, they have everything there."

"Oh. Brandon is my partner's, Stephanie's biological son from her previous marriage," she answered, setting a hand onto my shoulder affectionately just as my mom walked through the back door. Callie's head turned towards the door, bewilderment lighting her face as she registered my mom's police uniform.

If possible even more distrust settled upon her face, and right then I knew I was going to get her to trust me in the time that she stayed with us. I wanted to know her. What had happened to her? And if it was possible, I wanted to protect her from it every happening again. Maybe one day she would find her family like Jesus and Mariana had found theirs with moms and me.

* * *

**This is my first fanfiction of anything other than Vampire Academy, and I am decently happy with how it went. It's weird writing about characters that I've only ever watched on TV, and not read through a novel. I hope you enjoy it though and leave me some feedback! **

**- Hannah**


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